Mahela slams SLC for ‘jam-packed’ limited over tournament schedule
Former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardena launched a scathing attack on Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) after they announced a jam-packed schedule for the domestic ODI tournament – SLC Invitation limited over tournament which kicked off on Saturday.
Twenty-five teams in four groups will battle it out in 66 first round matches within ten days to decide the eight quarter finalists. The quarter-finals will be played on December 8 followed by the semi-finals and finals on December 29 and 31 respectively.
“This is the schedule for @OfficialSLC first class ODI tournament. How do we get quality when only thing we can hope is players will be alive after the tournament,” Jayawardena, a strong advocate of a complete overhaul of the domestic structure wrote on his official twitter handle.
As Jayawardena rightly pointed, the ODI schedule will put major strains on cricketers who will play back-to-back cricket without giving sufficient time for recovery putting their entire domestic season at risk.
The domestic cricket season was originally scheduled to start with the four-day tournament on December 6. However, SLC failed to get the approval of the general membership at a Emergency General Meeting (EGM) for the revised domestic structure which will see 20 first class teams in two years.
Hence, they decided to kick-off the tournament with the limited over leg.
“It’s true that the ODI scheduled is jam-packed,” admitted Tournament Committee chairman Bandula Dissanayake. “ We were supposed to start the domestic tournament with the four-day tournament on December 6 but unfortunately we could not get it approved at an EGM in time. So there was a slight delay in the start of the season which eventually resulted in the packed ODI schedule.”
According to the proposed structure, Tier A will have 14 teams battling in two groups of seven teams and Tier B will have 10 teams this season. At the end of the first round, the top four teams in each group will play in the ‘Super Eight’ tournament while the remaining six will play in the Plate final.
However, the two clubs in the bottom of the Plate final will be relegated to Tier B for the next season while the two bottom-ranked teams in Tier B will be relegated to play in the Governor’s Trophy.
Accordingly, the 2020/2021 season will see 12 teams in Tier A fighting for honours in two groups of six teams.
At the end of the first round, the first three of each group will play a ‘Super Six’ round while the remaining six clubs progress to the Plate round of the tournament.
The two bottom-ranked teams in the Plate round will be relegated to Tier B while the two bottom-ranked teams in Tier B tournament will be again relegated to play in the Governor’s Trophy.
This will leave 10 teams each in Tier A and B for the 2021/2022 season where the two bottoms teams in Tier A will be relegated to Tier B while two top teams in Tier B will be promoted to Tier A.
The two bottom-up teams in Tier B will be demoted to play in the Governor’s Trophy while the two top teams in Governor’s Trophy will be promoted to Tier A.